The Dog Days of Winter
by Hammy Uchiha
Summary: Its cold outside, and all Obito wants is some ramen. A certain dog has other ideas


**YAY! Obito! Please read and review.  
**

**Note: I don't own Naruto**

**The Dog Days of Winter**

By Hammy Uchiha

The raven haired Uchiha shivered violently in the shadowy shades of evening. Snow swirled in gusts of icy wind. His fingers were numb, wrapped up, in gloves, jammed in his pockets. The frosty fingers of the wind tugged on his scarf and coat, trying to pry it from his shivering form. The Uchiha trudged his way through the quickly piling up snow. Man, it was far too cold out, why the heck did he have to have his ramen! _Wait, that's a stupid question._

Obito Uchiha was relieved when he finally reached the Ichiraku ramen shop, the owner of the said shop was getting ready to close up. The entire shop was empty. Obito came in. The owner smiled to see one of his most frequent customers.

"Could I have a chicken ramen, to go, kudasai?" he asked. The proprietor looked doubtful. "I trudged all the way here," complained Obito seeing the refusal in the owner's eyes.

"For you, I guess, but you owe me one, Uchiha-sama,"

"Hai."

Obito headed back to his apartment, a grin plastered to his flushed face. A canteen of the ramen hung around his neck, under his coat, and the warmth was amazing in the frosty night. It was about half-way back to his apartment that he noticed he was being followed. But what he was being followed by did not worry him as much as the thought his ramen might get cold.

It was small with perky ears and a funny little limp. It was an orange-ish brown with big sad eyes. The dog followed him hopping from footprint to footprint that Obito had left behind. Obito tried not to pay too much attention to it, but the dog kept on following him.

The wind was howling fiercely as Obito climbed up the old rusty fire escape stairs to his apartment. When at last he reached the door and was numbly searching for his key, the dog sat down as well. It was just far enough away to not appear as though it had anything to do with him, but just close enough so that you knew that was following him.

Obito's frozen fingers pulled out the key to the apartment on a key chain with the Uchiha emblem on it. Obito stuck it in the key hole and turned. KLICK. Obito opened the door and went in, closing the door behind him. Inside it was almost as bad as outside. There was a terrible draft and Obito had not had the money to pay for the heating bill. He shook the snow off his boots and kicked them off. He was shedding his coat when he heard a strange sound. When he listened he could hear scratching and a frantic whine.

He had no idea what it could be, until he remembered the dog that had followed him home. Obito opened the door. I mean, who could live with a good conscience knowing that a dog on their doorstep that they didn't let in had frozen to death in the winter storm. Well, Obito certainly couldn't. He opened the door and the little creature came limping it, his fur full of snow.

The Uchiha shut the door behind him and proceeded to shed his wet coat. Outside the wind was screaming. The little dog shook the snow from its fur. Obito watched as the snow splattered all over his floor melting into little wet spots. He grabbed a towel and crouched down to dry the dog off. The dog held still as Obito dried its fur. Just as he was wondering how a street dog could be so tame, he saw a blue collar around the dog's neck. When checked for tags, however, none could be found. Obito did not doubt that the dog was lost and someone was desperately looking for it. He wiped off the little dog's paws and then threw the towel to the side. He had almost forgotten the ramen!

He took the canteen off the counter where he had set it down, unscrewed the lid and poured the still steaming contents into a bowl. Obito sat down at the table as the dog shook itself one more time and came limping over. _Maybe Rin can do something about that little guy's poor leg…_ The dog managed to leap up into a chair near Obito and stood looking at him with big brown eyes. Obito took out his chopsticks and began to slurp up the nice hot ramen. Man, he was sure glad he had decided to risk it out there; the ramen was totally worth it. The dog whined. Obito shot it a glance. Its big brown eyes were gazing at him sadly.

"Why didn't you just say you were hungry, Inu-san?" he asked it. Inu just whined a little more. Obito picked out a piece of chicken and tossed it to the dog, which wolfed it up in an instant. He instantly turned back to Obito for more. Obito rolled his eyes.

"Here, I'll get you something, just stay there for a minute Inu-san," replied Obito. He got up and opened his cupboard.

You know in cartoons how someone opens up their cupboard and it's so empty there are cobwebs? Well Obito's cupboard was pretty much like that, except for a box of rice crackers that his mom had given him that he had tried and never eaten one again. He opened the box and was about to toss one to Inu when he saw the dog, paws on table, lapping up the ramen broth. Obito nearly lost it.

"Inu, get away from my ramen," he tried to say as calm as possible. The dog ignored him. Obito snuck up behind him, but the dog turned on him growling.

"GRRRR! Get away from my ramen, dog!" yelled Obito right back at the dog, who then barked at Obito. "I'm not afraid of you! Come on, don't you want some nice rice crackers?" pleaded Obito, but the dog just growled at him and returned to the ramen. Angrily Obito watched as the dog drank all the broth then ate the noodles, chicken and all.

Poor Obito was practically crying when the dog finished, leapt off Obito's chair and landed on his own chair.

"My ramen….all gone…."

The dog leaned forward and licked Obito's elbow. It wasn't an apology and in no way did Obito take it as such. He was just incredibly hungry now. As he barely had enough money for rent and he couldn't pay the heating bills, Obito's cupboard was empty and now, so was his stomach. He looked at the rice crackers. Crap, how he hated those things…

He involuntarily shuddered. They were all that was left… he still couldn't believe that Gai had leant him money for that ramen in the first place.

The dog was looking at him, but he refuse to look at the dog. Winter was the toughest time to make ends meet, there were fewer missions for lower ranked or lower skilled ninja. So there was hardly any income and so Obito was ravenously hungry and all that were left were the rice crackers.

"Stupid dog," he muttered taking out a cracker and biting into it. It was stale. Gross.

Inu whined. Obito, slightly twitching, turned towards it.

"What do you want, dog?" he demanded. "You're already in my house, you've eaten my ramen, what else could you possibly want!" The dog whined at him again. Obito growled a curse under his breath. The dog hopped off the chair and walked to the sink and stood with his big brown eyes and whined. Obito twitched again. _He's thirsty!_

Vaguely wondering what had possessed him to do so, Obito got down a bowl from one cupboard that was full of dinner ware, even though there was no dinner… just rice crackers. He turned on the facet and filled the dish; he set it on the floor and stood back.

"There, are you happy?" he demanded, but the dog was busy lapping up the water. As Obito watched the dog drink, because somehow he decided watching it drink was better than eating rice crackers, he had a horrible thought.

"You'd better not pee on my floor now, Inu," he warned it. The dog decided he had drunk enough water to quench his thirst after the salty ramen. The dog sat down and stared at Obito. Obito squatted down and stared at the dog. The dog won the staring contest.

"You're despicable," Obito told the dog and stalked off. The dog followed. Obito turned around. "Can't you leave me alone? You've already ruined my dinner and you're probably going to ruin my carpet later, isn't that good enough for you?" he yelled mournfully. _The ramen never had a chance…_

The dog whined and headed for the door. Obito was instantly grateful. At least the dog had been housetrained. He opened the door, the dog went out and he shut the door to keep the colder air out of his cold house. Obito took off his goggles and headband and ran a hand through his hair. This night was turning into a nightmare. He collapsed down on the floor and listened to the mournful gurgling of his empty stomach. _Nothing to eat, nothing to eat…_

There came the scratching on the door, and Obito almost smiled, almost didn't get up, almost didn't open the door, and almost didn't let the dog back into his slightly-warmer-than-outside-temperature apartment. Key word being: almost. The dog came back in covered with snow. Obito got out the towel and dried the dog off again. He might as well take a shower now, seeing as maybe that might take his mind off his empty stomach. Though to tell the truth he was looking forward to a cold shower. No money was a terrible thing, your house was cold, your shower was cold, and your cupboard was cold and empty, and most of all you were cold no matter how many sweatshirts you put on.

Obito turned on the water. Cold. He hopped in, which was even colder, washed off, and hopped out into a cold towel. (Luckily he had more than one towel and it wasn't already wet from the dog in the snow) On came the pajama pants, and his normal pants, then the long sleeved shirt and another long sleeved shirt and a sweat shirt. Then came the socks, both pairs of them. When he left the bathroom, what to his horror-filled eyes should appear? But a little brown dog and his goggles…

The ramen eating was bad, Obito had to admit, it was devastating, but the goggles… the dog had crossed the line, Obito would have no mercy on a goggle destroying dog. The Uchiha took off after the dog, but then came to a dead halt when he saw what the dog had gotten to first. His hitai-ate lay on the floor the headband part torn and slobbered on.

That was the last straw.

"DOG!" yelled Obito launching himself at the little orangey dog that was ruining his life. He wasn't quite sure where the kunai came from but he flung it at the dog, missed and it hit his lamp, that went down but Obito did not stop. The dog ran and ran, kunai hit the walls, the furniture, the box of rice crackers (the dog was nowhere near the rice crackers), and the door. The dog bolted into Obito's room and vanished under the bed with Obito's goggles and all. Obito collapsed on the floor exhausted, he was out of kunai, his house was wrecked and he was tired of the dog.

Inu poked his head out from under the bed, goggles in his mouth, to watch Obito. The raven haired shinobi was tired, he could barely move, he had no strength left, due to a raging hunger in his stomach. Inu watched him, chewing thoughtfully on the goggles. Obito groaned clutching his stomach and rolled over, his back now to the dog. There was a long silence, until a picture came crashing down off one of the walls, the kunai had hit it and it had finally plummeted to its final resting place. Gurgle. Obito shut his eyes, it was too much. Crack. The dog's chewing had finally broken the plastic lenses of Obito's goggles. Obito rolled over instantly. The dog's head snaked back under the bed, taking the goggles, leaving the broken plastic.

Obito felt sick, and tired. He picked up the lenses and through them away. He retrieved all his kunai, righted all his furniture and threw away the broken picture that had fallen from the wall. Then he sat down because he was tired and feeling weak from hunger. The rice crackers were staring at him. _Why me! Why didn't it follow Kakashi home or something! _Obito opened the box and trying to ignore the staleness made a meal of the remaining three crackers. The rest of the box had been obliterated by his kunai. Then Obito picked up the phone.

"…Hullo? This is Rin,"

"Rin-chan?"

"Isn't it kinda late to be calling Obito-kun?"

"I have a problem,"

"Umm…like what kind of problem?"

"It's a dog problem,"

"You don't have a dog Obito-kun. Are you sure you haven't eaten too much ramen and are imagining things?"

"The freaking dog ate my ramen, destroyed my goggles, my hitai-ate, and my house,"

"Ummm…Okay…"

"Can't you help me?"

"Even if I could there's no way I'm coming over there in the middle of a snowstorm,"

"It's a snow storm?"

"Yeah…well, good bye, Obito-kun,"

"No! Wait!"

"…."

"Rin are you still there? Rin!"

"…"

Obito hung up the phone; how could a dog have possibly caused so much trouble! Speaking of the devil, he was sitting on the carpet, Obito's goggles in his mouth watching the distraught shinobi with his big brown eyes. Obito almost tried to attack the dog again, but he was too tired, too hungry. He walked back to his room and crawled into bed. This was all probably one big terrible dream that he was going to wake up from any second…..any second…

Obito pinched himself and immediately realized that he was not dreaming, that the dog really had eaten his ramen and destroyed his goggles. He pulled the blankets over his head and tried to go to sleep, but even under the covers it was as cold as ice. Outside the wind was screaming louder than ever. Obito heard a whine and a scratching on his bed. He stuck his head out and saw the dog without his goggles, on his bed staring at him. Obito glared at the dog, which taking the opportunity limped over and curled up beside Obito. '_That's funny; he never seemed to limp when he was running around with my goggles' _thought Obito bitterly. Obito curled back up under the heavy blankets, but the dog was the warmest part of the bed. It was like having a little heater curled up next to him. Grudgingly Obito had to admit the dog was actually helping him now. Closing his eyes Obito fell asleep.

Morning came, but the house was still dark. The dog woke Obito up, surprisingly at a descent time so Obito wouldn't be late if he got right up. Obito had other ideas; his digital clock had blinked out and was not on at all, so the power must be down. He was going to sleep in. The dog whined.

"Stupid dog," groaned Obito, he almost rolled over to go back to sleep when he remembered one reason a dog might whine. Obito practically jumped out of bed.

"Don't even think about making a mess on my floor!" he cried running to the front door, the dog right behind him. He opened the door to a blast of frosty wind and snow fell in. The dog had to go though and jumped out into the white powder as Obito tried to get the snow out of his apartment. By the time he had managed to get rid of the snow the dog had trotted back in. Obito slammed the door with a shiver. Once more he got out a towel for the dog and dried him off. Obito got dressed, there was no point in going back to sleep now. He dressed up in heavy pants and a number of shirts, then on came his coat, as usual sporting the Uchiha emblem on the back. The dog watched as Obito pulled on his boots and then looked for his goggles. Obito grimaced, remembering what had happened to his goggles.

He stuck his hitai-ate in the pocket of his coat and pulled on a stocking hat. He wrapped a scarf around his neck and pulled on two pairs of thick gloves. Then he pulled out a random little hat his cousin had left in his apartment (yes, Sasuke left it) and pulled it onto the dog's head. Then he opened up the door and trudged out into the snow.

Obito ended up being late to his team's meeting spot. The dog came right behind him.

"You're late, loser," came Kakashi's voice through a thick layer of scarf. Obito didn't grin, he just pulled up his hat to show off his new hitai-ate.

"Inu-san ate my hitai-ate so I had to go get a new one," replied Obito.

"You don't have a dog," said Rin and Kakashi at once, annoyed with Obito's excuse. Obito stepped to the side, revealing a little orangey brown dog wearing Sasuke's hat. Rin looked from the dog to Obito and realized he wasn't wearing his goggles. _So he was telling the truth when he said the freaking dog had destroyed his ramen and goggles._ _He doesn't look as though he's too mad at the dog right now though…_

Kakashi still looked annoyed.

"What happened to your goggles Uchiha-san? Don't tell me your dog ate those too,"

"He did," replied Obito. Obito couldn't see Kakashi's smile at that.

"That's a good doggy, good doggy Inu-san," said Kakashi petting Inu. "Good doggy ate Obito's nasty goggles,"

_HE'S PRAISING IT FOR DESTROYING MY GOGGLES!_

Obito hit Kakashi over the head. Most of the time it worked the other way around, but this time Obito had the upper hand, literally. Kakashi glared up at Obito, then stood up and hit him over the head. Both boys stood with their arms shielding their heads, glaring at each other with palpable venom. Rin rolled her eyes.

"Do you two always have to fight?" she demanded. She walked over and picked up the dog.

"Be careful," warned Obito. "He's evil,"

"He?" asked Rin looking at Obito. Obito blinked then looked really embarrassed. "Inu's a she, stupid." Obito's face turned redder than it already was.

"Haru! Haru-san, where are you?"

The three turned to a little girl walking the snow. Inu gave a little bark and she leapt from Rin's arms.

"Haru!" cried the little girl running through the snow to meet the little dog.

"That dog's yours?" asked Obito. The little girl looked up at the raven haired shinobi.

"Yep!"

"You shouldn't let her out of your sight and get away like that again," said Obito. The girl nodded.

"Did you take care of her, mister?" she asked. Obito nodded. "Arigato, mister," she said bringing the dog and hugging Obito's legs. He bent down and scratched Haru's head.

"You can keep that hat if you'd like," he told her. _Sasuke's probably got another one already anyways, he is son of the head of the clan after all…_ The girl smiled, and bowed her thanks one more time and ran off.

"Good riddance," said Obito softly under his breath, then he let out a sigh. Rin patted him on the back.

"So you really did like that dog all along?" she said smiling at him.

"Its too bad she belongs to someone else, huh Obito? She never got a chance to rip up that butt ugly jacket you're always wearing," said Kakashi. Obito hit him over the head again, and Kakashi hit him back, and soon snowballs filled the air, to the screams and laughter of the three shinobi.

**Please Review**

**-Hammy Uchiha**


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